Online Postgraduate Education

‘I am delighted to welcome this addition to the literature of distance education. If ever there was an opportune time for a book that stimulates a new conversation about the theory of distance education, the time is now, when so many teachers and educational institutions are coming to terms with the disappointments and disasters of their recent pandemic-induced ventures online. Those ventures, as pointed out by the authors, employed “curriculum design requirements and teaching policies (that) are modelled on traditional campus-based HE practice”. Step away from this model, say Stapleford and Lee, and consider, and improve upon, what we already know about distance education. Known in pre-digital times as independent study, the starting point for distance education has always been an understanding of the needs of learners in what the visionary educator Charles Wedemeyer called their “surround”. I am delighted to see this encouragement to recognize and better understand the potential of programs designed to take into proper account this situational nature of all good distance education.’ Michael G. Moore, Editor, The American Journal of Distance Education and Distinguished Professor Emeritus of Education, The Pennsylvania State University, USA ‘The complex experiences of students in online distance education are arguably often occluded or oversimplified in educational research and practice. In this meticulously researched book, Stapleford and Lee uncover a rich and detailed set of narrative accounts of how students engage, providing nuanced and critical insights into the key concepts of openness, distance, and interaction. I expect this work will be recognised as a key reference point for educators and theorists of the digital in postgraduate higher education and beyond.’ Lesley Gourlay, Professor of Education, Institute of Education, University College London, UK ‘In their opportune and insightful book, Stapleford and Lee transport us back to roots of open and distance education theory and nearly simultaneously teleport us back to the myriad day-to-day issues and challenges repeatedly faced by online learners in the third decade of the twenty-first century. Impressively, they do this in a highly captivating and convincing style that forces the reader to feel the genuine social, emotional, psychological, economic, and technological realities of what open, online, and distance education learners are dealing with in this digital age today that have not always been explained by prevailing theories fashioned in the shadows of correspondence and satellite education.’ Curt Bonk, Professor, Instructional Systems Technology, School of Education, Indiana University Bloomington, U.S.A. ‘I am delighted to welcome this addition to the literature of distance education. If ever there was an opportune time for a book that stimulates a new conversation about the theory of distance education, the time is now, when so many teachers and educational institutions are coming to terms with the disappointments and disasters of their recent pandemic-induced ventures online. Those ventures, as pointed out by the authors, employed “curriculum design requirements and teaching policies (that) are modelled on traditional campus-based HE practice”. Step away from this model, say Stapleford and Lee, and consider, and improve upon, what we already know about distance education. Known in pre-digital times as independent study, the starting point for distance education has always been an understanding of the needs of learners in what the visionary educator Charles Wedemeyer called their “surround”. I am delighted to see this encouragement to recognize and better understand the potential of programs designed to take into proper account this situational nature of all good distance education.’ Michael G. Moore, Editor, The American Journal of Distance Education and Distinguished Professor Emeritus of Education, The Pennsylvania State University, USA ‘The complex experiences of students in online distance education are arguably often occluded or oversimplified in educational research and practice. In this meticulously researched book, Stapleford and Lee uncover a rich and detailed set of narrative accounts of how students engage, providing nuanced and critical insights into the key concepts of openness, distance, and interaction. I expect this work will be recognised as a key reference point for educators and theorists of the digital in postgraduate higher education and beyond.’ Lesley Gourlay, Professor of Education, Institute of Education, University College London, UK ‘In their opportune and insightful book, Stapleford and Lee transport us back to roots of open and distance education theory and nearly simultaneously teleport us back to the myriad day-to-day issues and challenges repeatedly faced by online learners in the third decade of the twenty-first century. Impressively, they do this in a highly captivating and convincing style that forces the reader to feel the genuine social, emotional, psychological, economic, and technological realities of what open, online, and distance education learners are dealing with in this digital age today that have not always been explained by prevailing theories fashioned in the shadows of correspondence and satellite education.’ Curt Bonk, Professor, Instructional Systems Technology, School of Education, Indiana University Bloomington, USA